Workbook 14 Activity 2

 

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Activity 2: Scarcity

Get Focused

The first day of spring is fast approaching and you have earned enough money to purchase a new spring coat. All of your friends have been talking about the new style of coats that are in fashion right now.

You wait anxiously for the weekend when you have planned to go with your friends and spend a day at the mall shopping and, of course, purchasing that special jacket. However, Saturday arrives, and the mall is packed. There are lineups at the cash register, and you arrive just in time to see the last jacket removed from the rack. You are informed that the jackets are sold out. No stores in the mall have any jackets of that style. As a matter of fact, every store in town has sold out of the jackets. It is a popular jacket!

The supply of jackets was not enough for the demand. The wants were more than what was available. This kind of problem happens frequently: it is scarcity. Because the demand for the jackets was greater than the supply, the jackets were scarce, which means something is not always available.

Scarcity happens when people's needs and wants are not met because of a shortage or lack of a desired good or service.

supply: the availability of goods or services

demand: the desire for goods or services by consumers

scarcity: the result of limited resources and unlimited wants; in economics, the idea that land, labour, and capital limit the supply of what people want and need

 Vocabulary

Retrieve your Issues for Canadians Definitions handout from your Activities folder.

Add the terms supply, demand, and scarcity, and write a definition for each new word.

If needed, retrieve a new definitions handout from the Toolkit.

Save your updated handout to your Activities folder.

In this activity, you will examine these questions:

• What does scarcity mean to me?
• How do the economic systems of Canada and of the United States differ in answering the basic question of scarcity?